Wednesday, June 13, 2012

This blog has been dominated by the "needles" part for the past several years, so it was time for a "wheels" entry.

A call was made last week. A little town ( pop <3000) lost a soldier. The Westboro Baptist Church was talking about protesting, because a funeral is of course the proper time to express political views. Thie Chief of Police had a little talk with the head of the local nursing home, who also happens to be the President of our American Legion Riders, requesting if he could round up a few bikers to escort the body home from the airport, to serve as a large and rough looking buffer in case there were protesters. A flurry of emails and phone calls went out. The message was clear: please come, and spread the word to others.

My sweetie answered the call, and arranged to meet the others at our Legion parking lot to drive the 60 miles to the airport. He said that he hoped there were more than four or five, since it was short notice. Imagine his surprise: Our legion had 36, and the sister legion had 12 more.

When they got to the airport, they couldn't believe what they saw. Nearly 500 motorcycles were there to escort this young man home. It was the lead story on the local news station. If there were any protesters, no one was looking at them.

But my sweetie and his bike got a little hurt during that ride. Someone cut in front of my sweetie, and wasn't paying enough attention to the bikes in front of him, so he went down. My sweetie drove into the ditch, instead of driving over this guy's head only feet in front of him. So my sweetie broke a foot peg, and hurt his wrist. Not broken, just sore and swollen, but he couldn't work the next day.

Cost for new footpegs: $209. Lost wages the next day: $140. Value of honoring the sacrifice of a fallen soldier: Priceless.